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  • Report:  #380042

Complaint Review: Stonebridge Life Insurance

Stonebridge Life Insurance Does not pay if the policy holder dies before two years of having their policy Valley Forge, PA. Dallas, Texas

  • Reported By:
    Dallas Texas
  • Submitted:
    Fri, October 10, 2008
  • Updated:
    Thu, July 09, 2009
  • Stonebridge Life Insurance
    Valley Forge, PA 19493
    Nationwide
    U.S.A.
  • Phone:
    877-268-3762
  • Category:

Sales Reps won't tell you.
My mother had a Life Insurance policy with Stonebridge Insurance Company. She died last week and we were informed that since she had not had the policy for two years the Insurance Company as not going to pay. The only payment the Insurance Company.sai they would pay was what she had paid in during the time she had the policy. We were faced with the terrible fact she was not informed of this at the time of purchasing this policy. She never would have purchased it.

Please beware this Insurance Company and don't depend on them to come through for you in your time of loss. They won't pay you a dime of the Insurance amount. All you will get is what has been paid them in premiums. You may as well put the money in a savings, so you can at least get some interest on the funds.. It seems there are no Insurance Companies that are willing to pay you if you haven't had their policy and paid in at least two years premiums.

So I ask?

What good is Insurance to Americans who get a policy they need in time of loss and find that it was worthless! Devastated and painful are the only wortds to describe the aweful reality of useless Insurance when your Mother was thinking she was reileving her family of he weight of burden at the time when she most wanted her family to have some relief. Family is Devastated!!!!

Cathy
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.

2 Updates & Rebuttals


Donna T

Fort Worth,
Texas,
U.S.A.

More info on Life Insurance

#3Consumer Comment

Thu, July 09, 2009

There are MANY different types of life insurance; consumers must know what they have bought and how it works.

The state of Texas has a two year contestible clause in life insurance, where the company has the right to investigate the doctor records of the insured to verify if all health questions on the application were answered truthfully. If death occurs within this two year period, and it is determined that false information was given on the application, the insurance company has the right to deny the claim and return all premiums paid.

There are also types of life insurance that state plainly that if death occurs during the first two years of the policy, the premiums paid will be returned. Some policies also pay interest on the premium paid.

In insurance and all other contracts, it is always up to the consumer to READ THE FINE PRINT! There is a page in all policies that shows the death benefit and/or cash value of a policy from Year 1 and forward.

I would encourage this lady's family to read the policy if they haven't by now.


Robert

Irvine,
California,
U.S.A.

Sad, but...

#3Consumer Comment

Fri, October 10, 2008

It is very common to have a "waiting period" on Life Insurance Policies. Yes some companies and policies do not, and some policies have a different amount of time for this "waiting period".

Unfortunatly you have no way of knowing if she was verbally told or not or "She would never have purchased it" if she had known. When people buy insurance they don't want to think that they are going to die in a short period of time. If by some chance she did know this is a question she needed to ask and not rely on the agent to tell her. Insurance policies have a lot of clauses and exclusions and no agent is going to go over every single line. So it is the person's responsibility to be able to ask the questions or read the policy themselves. If they are not capable of that they need to have someone go over it with them. If the agent refuses then you need to get a 3rd party to do it and never sign anything until you understand what you are signing.

The only thing to suggest is go over that policy line by line. You can go in with the belief that if it is not in writing it does not exist. So if there is nothing in the policy declaration that states this waiting period you have a valid argument on that point. However, if there is then unfortunatly there is not much you will be able to do.

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